Balenciaga‘s big show in Los Angeles Saturday caps off a fancy, but ultimately encouraging, yr for the French fashion house — and underscores how necessary the U.S. market stays for its future.

California particularly has been a recent focus for Balenciaga’s retail expansion — it doubled its presence on Rodeo Drive and debuted a two-story venue at South Coast Plaza — and that’s hardly a coincidence.

“It’s very necessary while you have a look at the perception that all of us have of luxury, and the role played by america particularly in redefining luxury,” in accordance with Balenciaga chief executive officer Cédric Charbit. “Balenciaga also makes this claim of redefining luxury, so we’ve this in common.”

Since Demna arrived on the creative helm of the Kering-owned house in 2015, and Charbit a yr later, the brand has expanded its retail presence in America from 15 directly operated stores to greater than 50 locations and counting, propelled by the Georgian designer’s creative daring, which ignited a luxury streetwear juggernaut — and made dark, oversize clothing and bulging footwear global signposts of other cool.

In an exclusive interview, Charbit elaborated on the rationale for its splashy L.A. event, which incorporates a pop-up couture store, and collaborations with jeweler Jacob & Co. and Erewhon Market, the exorbitant food market whose $22 smoothies surely have something in common with Balenciaga’s $925 towel skirts.

The exuberant, straight-shooting executive also recounted the brand’s complex yr because it navigated its way back into the style highlight after being rocked by the promoting campaign crisis at the top of 2022 over images that critics claimed promoted the exploitation of kids.

Charbit got here well prepared for the interview, and with none prompting spoke first about Balenciaga’s three-year partnership with the U.S.-based National Children’s Alliance that was formed following the promoting scandal.

This system involves training nearly 2,000 mental health professionals to support survivors of abuse; providing education to the French fashion company on child protection and ways to advertise child safety and well-being, and raising public awareness of those issues.

“The beginning of the yr was an excellent time to listen, learn and interact,” he said, lauding the NCA’s mindset of “helping people envision a greater future in comparison with what they could have suffered.”

Balenciaga also constructed multiple guardrails to “empower and protect creativity,” with internal and external bodies charged with clearing content, providing assessments, background checks and the like.

“Creativity is the driving force of this brand and it’s at the center of our strategy, so it’s necessary to be vigilant,” Charbit explained in his minimalist, industrial-tinged office-cum-conference-room. “I believe it’s very necessary in a brand like Balenciaga that creativity doesn’t take a break, doesn’t get stagnant, doesn’t get stuck and doesn’t get locked in.

“That is the heritage we’ve, and it’s necessary that Demna brings this creative value to life,” he stressed.

Charbit recounted the brand’s key events during the last 12 months, tantamount to a volume button steadily dialing up from inaudible.

After staging a low-key fall 2023 show in March that he later admitted was to not his liking, Demna doubled down on swagger for his cruise 2024 collection film and spring 2024 runway show during Paris Fashion Week, returning to voluptuous, dramatic silhouettes steeped in underground energy, all worn by his handpicked solid of fierce characters.

Celebrity shunning of the brand during this yr’s Hollywood award season within the wake of the controversy yielded to Michelle Yeoh resplendent eventually May’s Cannes Film Festival in an emerald green silk taffeta Balenciaga couture number with an identical stole; Nicole Kidman, Kim Kardashian and Isabelle Huppert wearing more of the brand’s screen-siren couture gowns on the Kering Foundation Caring for Women dinner in Latest York City in September, and eventually in October, Beyoncé wrapping up her mammoth “Renaissance” world tour in a custom Balenciaga couture column sparkling with 8,000 rhinestones.

Yeoh was officially named a brand ambassador last month, and Balenciaga on Saturday added Kidman to its official roster, which also includes Huppert and Krit Amnuaydechkorn.

Balenciaga’s path back into the highlight included a stop at May’s Met Gala, where it filled its table with young designers in lieu of movie stars, including Bianca Saunders, Raul Lopez of Luar, Svitlana Bevza and Elena Velez. “This moment of giveback was also necessary for us,” Charbit said. “You would see Demna at an excellent event, but in addition Balenciaga opening its platform to emerging talents.”

Meanwhile, Demna’s third couture show — Balenciaga shows couture only every year — took place last July on the brand’s original Avenue George V couture salons, which had been doubled in size, signaling each “the expansion of the brand and our attachment to the couture, our origins,” Charbit said.

So consider the Los Angeles event Balenciaga’s boldest comeback affirmation of all of them, staged in an important luxury market on this planet — and in a state that’s on the apex of popular culture and recent lifestyle trends.

“It’s a region which could be very influential almost all over the place on this planet, for the life-style, consumption patterns, art, music, entertainment, and in addition in the best way we dress,” Charbit marveled.

Still, Balenciaga — which broke the mold last yr when it opened a couture store on the Avenue George V selling Bang & Olufsen boomboxes for 8,500 euros alongside crinkled aluminum T-shirts and disquieting couture face shields — is importing the uniquely Parisian retail experience, French sales staff included, in a two-day takeover of the upper level of its recent Rodeo Drive women’s store.

“It’s a way of engaging with our customers and taking a step towards them. I believe it’s necessary to make a gesture,” Charbit said.

Within the post-war period, legendary Spanish couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga famously dressed a number of famous American women in his architectural, exacting and yet forgiving brand of high fashion, including society figure Bunny Mellon, beauty entrepreneur Helena Rubenstein and actresses Ava Gardner, Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor.

Through the interview, Charbit read out a quote from Mellon’s biography, through which she lauds the founder’s understanding of luxury and ease with “profound sensitivity. His evening dresses and coats were indescribably fascinating; his daytime designs perfectly adapted to the lifetime of his clients.”

“I actually prefer to make the link and the parallel to what Demna does today,” Charbit said. “Demna has succeeded within the transcription of this incredible and impressive heritage and he does it with a lot strength.”

Steadily through the interview the manager returned to speaking excitedly in regards to the creative work of Demna, who returned his focus in 2023 to creating clothes after detours into popular culture along with his bespoke episode of “The Simpsons,” over-the-top runway sets like his “mud show” for spring 2023, and projects with controversial celebrities.

“I watch him with quite a lot of attention and interest, and I discovered this yr particularly strong creatively,” he said. “It was a possibility to see to what extent he has a powerful and determining vision for fashion on the whole.”

In disclosing its third-quarter results at the top of October, Balenciaga’s parent, Kering, said the brand’s growth was “mixed” across the regions, but “booming” in Asia. Sales on the French group’s “other houses” division, also home to Alexander McQueen, Brioni and Boucheron, fell 19 percent on a reported basis and 15 percent underlying.

“The brand is coming back in 2024,” Jean-Marc Duplaix, Kering’s deputy CEO in command of operations and finance, said on the time regarding Balenciaga. “Brand appreciation is currently very high, very strong and we’ll resume our communication initiatives next yr. We haven’t been pushing a lot on the open-to-buy this yr, but we’re planning for a rebound depending on market conditions.”

Bernstein analysts estimate revenues at Balenciaga totaled about 2.5 billion euros last yr.

Within the interview, Charbit declined to debate figures, but spoke freely about Balenciaga’s robust business in China, and powerful consumer response to its spring 2024 show last October, at which Demna paraded his widest shoulders, biggest sneakers and purses weighed down with more hardware than the Paris footbridges plagued with “love locks.”

Charbit noted that certain items were available for purchase on its website immediately after that show and sold out “in seconds,” signaling the brand’s vitality. These included Cargo sneakers, amongst the biggest styles Demna has made thus far.

Late last month, Balenciaga launched a skiwear collection. “That can also be an excellent success in stores and worldwide,” Charbit said.

In the same vein, products featured in its current “It’s Different” campaign — winking to Apple’s iconic promoting within the ’90s — have been stoking high sell-throughs, in accordance with the corporate. Other wry slogans within the campaign include “No blabla” and “Probably not what you’re in search of” beside blunt pack shots of bizarre shoes, and puffed-up bags and coats.

Among the bags, clothes and collaborations from the autumn 2024 runway outing on Saturday can even be available for immediate purchase or preorder. These include supersized Cagole totes, 10XL sneakers, plus jerseys bearing the phrase No Logo in Old English script.

“It’s a option to have a good time the brand and we see that there’s quite a lot of interest from people for products they immediately wish to wear,” Charbit said in regards to the show.

“The autumn 2024 collection is my interpretation of L.A.’s fashion codes and a celebration of the American form of dressing that’s felt all internationally,” Demna said. “The perfect place to do that is clearly Los Angeles — a city where many modern fashion references originate from.”

The CEO argued that American clients relate intensely to Balenciaga’s ethos, from the founding couturier toiling to create garments that suited the figure and lifestyle of his clients to Demna’s edgy, uncompromising designs that “have the power to disclose and transform the wearer.”

“I actually have the impression that individuals who select us want and expect us to assist them reveal their true selves and transform them into the person they feel they’re,” he mused. “Balenciaga allows everyone to precise their difference, to rework into themselves. I believe that’s an interesting proposition in luxury particularly.”

After his spring 2024 show in Paris, Demna took a not-so-veiled swipe on the quiet luxury trend and fashion conformity on the whole. He told reporters backstage: “I don’t imagine in an ideal, polished, beige angora world.”

Charbit noted that American customers were the primary to reply to Balenciaga’s leather handbags, starting with the Le Cagole and Hourglass models, and now the Rodeo with its “open flap” design, accruing long waitlists, and the softly padded Monaco bag in high demand in South Korea and America.

He described a fascination with the unique ways American shops, from the “very pragmatic customer expectation” of the founder’s clients to the various public Balenciaga welcomes in its Los Angeles venues, which include a Beverly Center store that doubled in size earlier this yr: local fashionistas, tourists from across America, international visitors, celebrities and stylists.

That blend has impacted the design of its stores, the dimensions of its fitting rooms, and the cultural knowledge of its associates.

“Our culture and our brand are mixed,” Charbit said. “We sell to a few of the most iconic and well-known men and girls on this planet, but in addition probably the most discreet ones who understand Demna’s vision, so history repeats itself.”

Musing on Balenciaga’s future prospects, Charbit said, “Nothing is insurmountable.…The pressure on luxury on the whole should encourage us to surpass ourselves and never limit ourselves. I see opportunities for the home in lots of markets where the brand is currently performing extraordinarily well, but in addition in regions offering strong potential within the medium and long run. The USA is one in all them.”

He argued the brand has made progress this yr by way of brand perception, brand visibility, brand endorsement, brand creativity and brand desirability. “I believe we’ve done job, and the brand went really far.”

He also allowed, “We still have quite a bit to do.

“I believe we’ve to think long run and know how you can invest with a long-term vision, especially for us, with greater than 100 years of history,” he said. “Balenciaga isn’t a start-up.…We want to take into consideration actions that may project us into the longer term.”